New Times picks the best things to do in metro Phoenix this week.
Art, Sex & Disobedience: A Conversation with Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina, & Ksenia Zhivago
If you’re at all transgressive in Russia nowadays, better disguise yourself. That’s why punk protest band Pussy Riot sports homemade balaclavas while laying down a groove that’s part concert, part performance art, getting arrested everywhere from a Moscow cathedral to the Sochi Winter Olympics and imprisoned for anywhere from four hours to two years. It’s almost as if the authorities think our grrrlz make the motherland look bad, when the rest of the world actually tends to find the movement wildly cool.
Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina and Ksenia Zhivago will chat about these and other haps at “Art, Sex & Disobedience: A Conversation with Pussy Riot” at Beth Hebrew Synagogue, 333 East Portland Street, on Tuesday, February 16, at 7:30 p.m. The event’s moderated by Adriene Jenik of ASU’s Herberger Institute School of Art and Ed Masley, music editor of The Arizona Republic. Nab tickets, $25 to $40, at www.statesidepresents.com. Julie Peterson
Hour of Decision
Stop being the annoying office overachiever. Release your grip on the computer mouse and take a damn lunch break already. Get educated while you’re at it.
The Herberger Theater Center’s Lunch Time series is an opportunity to have lunch and take in a performance. This month’s play, Hour of Decision, tells the story of Daisy Bates, a civil rights activist who fought to integrate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in the 1950s. Learn about this pivotal point in history at 12:10 p.m. on Wednesday, February 17, at 222 East Monroe Street. Tickets are $6. Doors open at 11:40 a.m. The show runs through February 25. Attendees can bring a lunch or order from the venue when purchasing tickets in advance. Call 602-252-8497 or visit www.herbergertheater.org. Amy Young
Diane Rehm
Diane Rehm found herself watching, helplessly, as her husband of 54 years refused food and water for 10 long days, determined to die with dignity after a battle with Parkinson’s. The beloved host of the NPR-distributed Diane Rehm Show sought solace in writing: Penning a poignant, personal recollection of her grief that became a new memoir, On My Own. An invitation into that first year of widowhood, the book tackles tough topics, from struggling with survivor’s guilt to the right to die.
Mark Brodie (KJZZ’s Weekend Edition) hosts a public conversation with Rehm about her work and life on Thursday, February 18, care of Changing Hands Bookstore.
Doors at 6:30 p.m., event begins at 7 p.m. at Dobson High School Auditorium, 1501 West Guadalupe Road in Mesa. Admission to the speaking engagement is $28 for one seat, $30 for two. Each includes a pre-signed copy of On My Own, available at the auditorium. Call 480-730-0205 or visit www.changinghands.com for details. Janessa Hilliard
The Bridges of Madison County
There’s a reason we aren’t rich and famous. Well, there’s more than one reason, but the one that comes to mind right now is the existence of a musical based on The Bridges of Madison County and how it would never occur to us to write it. Six covered bridges remain in the real Madison County, Iowa (and tours continue), yet no one in the play is dressing up as them and singing and dancing. Viewing that as a missed opportunity is probably another reason we remain poor and obscure.
The Tony-winning show continues through Sunday, February 21, at Gammage Auditorium, 1200 South Forest Avenue in Tempe. Thursday, February 18’s performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 to $185 at www.ticketmaster.com or 480-965-3434. Julie Peterson
Truth or Dare
Truth: The Storyline, a project founded by Dan Hoen Hull and Rachel Egboro in 2012, produces themed events throughout the Valley at which people stand up in front of a crowd and recount a tale that is personal and true. Truth: on February 18, six skilled storytellers known as the Storyline Collective will appear at Crescent Ballroom for Truth or Dare, an evening of funny, brutal, intimate, inspiring and sometimes daringly embarrassing anecdotes.
Dare: Go watch the Storyline Collective present their personal stories of Truth or Dare at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, February 18, at Crescent Ballroom, 308 North Second Avenue. The event is 21-and-up, and tickets are $5. Call 602-716-2222 or visit crescentphx.com for more. Zach Fowle